Worcester v Sils

Worcester vs Silhilians u14
24th November 2019
By Ian Hilton

Very wet the day before meant an early morning pitch inspection was required to confirm this fixture was on. Cracking venue if somewhat muddy pitch side. Quick team talk followed by 30 minute warm up saw Sils taking to the pitch, playing R to L. Alex Rose captain for the day lined the boys up to face the Worcester kick off. Sils made good progress after receiving but all of the hard work was undone by uncharacteristic handling errors. Sils spent a long time in the Worcester half but the error count continued and this along with some strong defensive kicking kept Sils at arms length. Hugo Murphy was badly injured mid way through the first 20mins and the game had to be stopped whilst he was treated on the pitch / pitch side. The game seemed to turn in Worcester's favour following the break but despite the penalty count giving Worcester lots of easy yards a strong defensive line from Josh Litwinko, Will Conduit and Ted Clark held Worcester at bay. Another sloppy penalty right in front of the posts to Worcester gave them a chance to lead but the pressure was on and the kick was missed short. Let off for Sils and some strong words from Alex and Tom Masterson got Sils thinking clearly. George Hastings and Brendan Colley working hard saw Sils right back at Worcester with a penalty kick of their own. Up steps Monty to take the 3 points for a 0-3 lead to Sils at the break.
Lively team talk at half time from Alex, Ted Clarke and Tom Masterson was like smelling salts and the re-start saw Sils starting to step it up. Offside penalty to Sils with Monty kicking left to touch. Time for a Sils line out special. Ross calling saw the ball held in the line, then the mighty Sils maul started to roll and roll stopping inches short of the try line where the maul collapsed. Amazingly Sils lost the ball in the collapse and Worcester went sharp right for a big clearance kick. Caught by George Hastings who ran it straight back. Another penalty to Sils saw Monty finding touch right. Sils line out saw the rolling maul push Worcester within yards of their line when up pops Ben Bryan to smash over the line with a great dive. 0-8 to Sils became 0-10 with Monty’s successful conversion. Re-start saw Sils march right back into the Worcester half with yet another penalty to Sils taken quickly by Monty. Big maul effort saw Worcester heading backwards but the collapse this time saw a big determined Tom Masterson pick and go like a truck to score out right. Score stayed 0-15 with difficult angle missed from wide right Blow of the refs whistle brought the 2nd third to an end 0-15 to Sils.
Change of personnel in the final third saw a first start for Harry James in the forward pack. Worcester did the same and the game started with Sils playing R – L. Sils break right with a powerhouse of a run from James Kennedy which saw him off load to Ollie McGinnity who made a lot of yards with a strong hand off. Great pass wide to George Hastings who hit George Maddy with a lovely timed pass, Sils going well only stopped with an adjudged forward pass. Worcester cleared their lines and with the Sils penalty count going up pushed into the Sils half. Turnover ball to Sils following some great rucking from George Marriott and James Kennedy saw Ross at 9 hit Monty wide at 10. Monty held the pass perfectly to find Brendan who hit the gas to round the Worcester defence, run half the length of the pitch to touch down under the posts. 0-22 to Sils after successful conversion. Matt Lane took over the 10 shirt from Monty. Few moments later saw an almost carbon copy of Ross to Matt to Brendan who managed to pull two defenders wide and as he ran out of space slipped a beautiful reverse pass inside to the fleet footed George Hastings who ran under the posts for 0-27. George then helped himself to another 2 with a sweet conversion 0-29 Sils. Sils were on a roll and attacking at speed with more yards made, Jaiden Drinkwater and Harry James standing strong. 10 yards out saw Ross and Matt combine again to hit big Will Conduit on an unstoppable short line 0-34 Sils. Conversion was met by the big boot of Josh Bould who almost cleared the car
park for a 0-36 score line. The last few minutes saw Sils seemingly committing penalty after penalty which resulted in Worcester eventually crossing the Sils line and grounding for a final score of 5-36 to Sils.